Mouth Positions That Exercise & Tone Muscles That Support the Soft Palate

by
JASON JENSEN Sept. 11, 2017

Jason Jensen

Jason Jensen began his professional freelance writing career in 2010. He is an ACT-certified personal trainer and longtime vegetarian with an enthusiasm for fitness and nutrition. Jensen has also worked as a musician, freelance photographer, audio engineer and Web designer.

Your hard palate is the roof of your mouth's hard part right behind your front teeth. Your soft palate -- the continuation of this muscle -- is the soft, fleshy part of the roof of your mouth just above the back of your tongue. You use your soft palate for speaking, sucking or blowing on something and swallowing. Having a strong soft palate is integral to singers, who could not sing well if they did not have control over their soft palate. People with a weak soft palate often have a nasal voice and typically snore when they sleep. Certain mouth positions can exercise and strengthen your soft palate.

Humming

You can strengthen your soft palate by humming. For instance, hum for a few seconds, blow your cheeks up for a second, hum again and repeat.

Making an E sound

When you make the sound of a long E, you exercise your soft palate. You can say any letter or word that produces an E sound -- like B, C, D, G, P, T and V -- or words like “me,” “see” and “pea,” respectively. Additionally, blow up your cheeks for a second and then hold an E sound for a few seconds.

Yawning

When you yawn, it forces your soft palate to arch upward. As an ideal yawning exercise, yawn while saying "ah."

Sucking and Blowing

You use your soft palate whenever you suck or blow. Ways you can strengthen your soft palate include sucking through a straight or curly straw, sucking on a smoothie or milkshake through a straw, blowing bubbles through a straw, blowing out candles and blowing on a horn.